Agricultural application of liquid fertilizer often involves the use of plastic hard hose to carry the liquid fertilizer from a tank or pipe outlet adjacent the field to an applicator that travels back and forth across the field. In order to avoid dragging the hose, which is filled with liquid fertilizer, across the field as the applicator travels back and forth, the hose is mounted on a hose reel. The reel winds and unwinds the hose as the applicator travels across the field.
As the hose is being pulled off the reel, there is a tendency for the reel to keep rotating, due to the momentum of the hose and liquid fertilizer therein. This can cause over-rotation of the reel when the applicator stops or slows down. Over-rotation of the reel in turn leads to slack in the hose, which can interfere with the alignment of the coils of the hose as it is wound back onto the reel. This is particularly problematic on short pulls, where the applicator stops the pull out cycle (when the applicator is travelling away from the reel) and begins the retrieve cycle (when the applicator is travelling back towards the reel) before the hose is completely unwound from the reel.